Miles Morales Spider-Man #1
Brian Arbizo
Recap
The sun is shining in a nosy city below as Spider-Man swings from one building to the next. Ever wonder what Spider-Man thinks about as he swings through the city? His journal.
The journal is an assignment given to him by one of his teachers. A journal is unhackable, allow your feelings in the journal, it's a safe place to write your deep dark secrets. In the mind of his teacher, it's safe. Miles is less than excited about it, however, finds out his roommate Judge already keeps a journal.
Miles isn't able to express who he is to many people, one of his roommates and his parents know he is Spider-Man, of course, a few Super-Friends as well. He takes comfort in writing in the journal as he tells readers about how he became Spider-Man at the age of 13, His Dad was an Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D who both Miles and his mother just found out. Mile's uncle Aaron was a supervillain known as Iron Spider. The only person that Mile's felt was honest was the Bad Ass of the Family Rio, his mother who is the Chief nurse at Brooklyn University Hospital.
Miles continues to talk about different adventures, his friends, but also his lack of sleep. He is never sure how he wakes up every day after three hours of sleep. Even if he gets home early he is unable to sleep due to adrenaline after fighting crime. Enters Barbara, unknown what their relationship is, they like each other, but they have no titles.
The weekend is here; Miles goes home he finally gets to sleep in. His mom is reading the newspaper the title "More Immigrant children detained." Saturday afternoon, Mile's meets up with Barbara and her cousin Eduardo. Barbara asks what they are, but Mile's isn't sure. Later in the night, Spider-Man is heading home when he hears a burglar alarm. He runs into what appears to be robots. The Rhino makes his appearance.
After a brief battle, Rhino tells Spider-Man he was not the one robing it, he is looking for his niece, and the robot looking creeps were going to lead him to her. Spider-Man joins the fight and stops the robots, however, they are not Robot's at all. They look like zombie's under their armor. To make matters worse, the smallest one is Eduardo.
Review
Miles Morales solo book is back, and Saladin Ahmed nails the return. Mr. Ahmed did a really good job at reintroducing Miles to new readers while not boring readers with an origin story. The idea of a journal to start it off was not only brilliant but also sets up a story about the journal. Miles is writing his deep dark secrets in it,so of course, it will eventually end up in the hands of some baddies (or maybe even his teacher?).
A classic Spider-Man villain, the Rhino, makes his return, but not in the way we would expect. What is up with the odd little robot zombie humans? I don’t know but I can’t wait to find out. I will be reading number 2.
My impression of the book was really well done. They could have gone many directions for issue 1, but I believe this creative team kept the rich history of the series and ran with it. Winning combo.
Final Thoughts
Writing is a solid 10, the idea of the journal was brilliant, the storyline appears to be at a 9, and it made me want to come back for more. I want to know what is going on. Art is my lowest grade at an 8. It's a little cartoonish which isn't a bad thing; it's how most Spider-Man books are drawn. It's not my favorite style but although that sounds like a negative, it totally works for this book. I did give the color in the book a 10. Every single panel was full of color and gorgeous.
This creative team is off to a great start, and I can't wait to read issue 2.
Miles Morales Spider-Man #1 “It’s not a diary it’s a journal”
- Writing - 10/1010/10
- Storyline - 9/109/10
- Art - 8/108/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 8/108/10